SPC Statement on the US Withdrawal from Iraq

The Syracuse Peace Council eagerly anticipates the return of U.S. service
members from the war in Iraq. As an organization that opposed the Iraq
War before it was launched, we feel it is long overdue.

However, we want a complete withdrawal. We call for: No U.S. troops in
Iraq. No U.S. mercenaries in Iraq. No U.S. military hardware or bases
in Iraq. Especially, we call for the end of the air war over Iraq —
no depleted uranium, no Chinook helicopters, no Reaper drones, no Hellfire
missiles, no white phosphorous, no cluster bombs.

Nor should any puppet government be left behind. For any real healing
to begin, we must fully remove ourselves from this scene of our crimes.

This past century teaches that no war truly ends. Its consequences endure
and multiply. The Iraqi people — the widowed, the orphaned, the amputated,
the heartsick, the displaced, the driven mad — will continue to suffer
long after the last U.S. soldier leaves.

Despite our departure from that lacerated land, our responsibility to
the people of Iraq remains. We must provide reparations for the wounds
we have inflicted. Dollars cannot compensate for the lives lost and devastated
infrastructure. Nonetheless, we must give our utmost. For millennia, Iraqis
have been builders; we must get out of their way and provide economic
support to enable them to rebuild their country and their lives.

The deep economic recession we are experiencing leads some to believe
that we should cut foreign aid. However, economic reparations for Iraq
can easily be paid with a small fraction of the enormous budget that has
been allocated to the U.S. military without competing in the slightest
with human needs at home.

It is telling that U.S. troops aren’t being kicked out of Iraq;
instead, that nation’s government has refused to extend immunity
to U.S. troops. They wish to hold U.S. troops accountable to Iraqi law
if they were to remain. What does it say about the conduct of the U.S.
military that we only want to maintain a military presence in a place
where we can’t be held responsible for our actions?

What can we learn from the disaster of the Iraq War? There are 4,482
U.S. service people dead, 32,213 U.S. troops wounded, a total economic
cost of over $3 trillion, according to Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz
and Harvard professor Linda J. Bilmes. The extent of the carnage to Iraqis
is unknown because our government didn’t want to count.

We must break out of our bubble of chauvinism, uncritical thinking and
mindless consumption. We must shun the lies that draw us into war. We
must remember what happened in Iraq and use it to prevent a new attack
on Iran.

We must also embark on the overdue reparation of ourselves. We must end
our worship of violence. We must mend our hearts that tolerated so long
what we did to the Iraqi people. We must fully support the healing of
our soldiers who, maimed in body and soul, must continue to live out their
days knowing what we have done. And we should hold accountable those who
used lies to lead us into war with Iraq in the first place.

We must convert our war-besotted economy to one that profits from life,
not death. We must dismantle our bloated military. To stop subverting
and invading more oil lands, we must break our addiction to oil. We must
leave not only Iraqi children, but our own, a planet free of the destitution
and killing that threatens to engulf them.

The Syracuse Peace Council educates, agitates and organizes for a world where war, violence and exploitation in any form will no longer exist. We are community-based, autonomous and funded by the contributions of our supporters. See the full Statement of Purpose.